Originally Posted by LikaNui
Since this is a thread about a convicted child molester, perhaps it would be a good idea to start a new thread about any festivals or other hula events and dancers, etc? Just a thought.

Hi,
Read some of your comments old and new and like your thinking.
You look at the bigger picture and yes, you're right.
so much negativity it's not comfortable to rehash when we could
call attention to more positive news but just a question. was he really convicted? If he were, how can he continue to work with kids? Isn't that against the law?

cg

Self-Employed...

What is he gonna do...run a background check on himself?

Ok Ok. You got a great point but isn't it illegal to allow him to work with kids after a conviction this serious? That well known stylist and owner of a modeling agency that was accused of child molestation and the family and him settled, part of the settlement was that he had to sell his company even though it handled mostly adults. If Mr. Mahoe was convicted, wouldn't
that be automatic? If you were the judge? Preventing this man
from continuing to work around children if that was his "illness".
Please, tell me it's not true. Any lawyers out there?
cg

Locally or on the mainland? Any URLs? TIA...

Local I am fairly certain we're talking about the same person.

As for Mr. Mahoe, someone told me last night that he is now
born again and is participating in Merry Monarch this year.
I cannot think of another profession or society (the world of hula?) where adults work very closely with young people, and a teacher is revealed to be a pedophile but is allowed to continue teaching children.

http://www.hawaiithreads.com/newrepl...reply&p=55486#

While I'm glad to hear that Mr. Mahoe appears to have rehabilitated himself, if I was a parent looking for a halau for my child, his would be the last one I would consider, even though he is well known in the hula community and was taught by George Naope. It's up to the parents to decide whether or not to trust a "former" pedophile. And apparently there are lots of parents who either don't know about his conviction or are comfortable having him teach their keiki. Caveat emptor.

Miulang

Kinky Chinky is still allowed to work with kids but only if another adult is present at all times.
Whether or not that is being enforced is unknown.
And the creep still refuses to apologize to the kids he molested and/or to their families.

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That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

It was the time just after Chinky had gotten busted for child molestation and was still going through his legal proceedings when I happened to be walking through the UH-Manoa Campus Center and I heard live Hawaiian music being performed at the bottom of those Campus Center stairs, which also served as its bleachers. It was as I was scanning the all-male members of the musical group when I saw Chinky standing in the back, off to the side, singing and playing guitar, and I remember saying to myself with a sneer on my face, "WTF is he doing here!! The nerve and the shameless gall he has by even being here performing in public!!"

I don't think I was alone with my feelings. The expression on Chinky's unsmiling face as he faced the audience said it all. Sure, he was singing and playing guitar, but his demeanor was that of someone who had just been invited to dinner at a cannibal's home and he was about to become the main event. Priceless. Wish I had a camera just then.

I guess Hawaiians really took the Missionary's Christian concept of forgiveness to the extreme.

Can't imagine many cultures totally forgetting, ignoring or forgiving a convicted child molestor.

Amazing.

How any parent of any boy could trust their son with a convicted child molestor is even more amazing. If it's happening, I consider it child neglect and the children should be taken away.

Mahalo Circuit Judge Wilfred Watanabe. Is child molestation acceptable in the Japanese culture as well?

Please don't claim that discussing Chinky Mahoe, who was mentioned by others, is not related to the Merrie Monarch. It is absolutley amazing at how Hawaiis media, Hawaii's people can shove their head in the sand.

Absolutely correct. I've been very outspoken here on HT in the past about Kinky Chinky, and it infuriates me that he's in Merrie Monarch. Like you, Kamuelakea, I don't want to rain on this thread, so we should probably resurrect one of the other threads about him, like this one here.
Just wanted you to know that you're definitnely not alone in your opinion.

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That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Thank god! I was sure everyone was going to start firing their ammo at me for being "angry and cynical" again. That "I'm the guy with the problem".

As offensive as this is, it should be the biggest story of the Merrie Monarch, ........sad but true.

If people are don't want their thread "rained upon" they should consider the lives of those 4 boys who were molested only to have their molestor walk free. Thats a little worse than a rained upon thread. If no one in the Merrie Monarch or Hula community can comprehend the PR problem here not to mention the moral, ethical problems, then they deserve the discussion.

Don't Let the B%^&#&S GET YOU DOWN!

Sorry for opening a can of worms.

In all fairness and to be objective, I've always considered him a marvelous kumu hula and his work and creativity in the spirit and integrity of the HULA, not his personal actions, are to be commended. Allowing him back into competition was something Auntie Dottie guys probably thought long and hard over.

Of course I don't condone his actions, but then again my name's not God nor is it Judge Watanabe, so I'm in no position to punish anyone.

Also, blanket statements like are unfair and you know it. Assumptions based on one individual's actions shouldn't be reflective of his/her ethnic group. If you have proof that would exhibit otherwise, feel free to share in the appropriate thread.

That is all.

Now you show yourself to be part of the problem.

There is no doubt he is guilty. HE PLED GUILTY!

When it involves children, I have no mercy. I judge. Not because I want to play God but because of the very Liberal philosophy that a society can be defined by how well it protects the weakest of its members.

A society that takes an adult, who pled guilty to child molestation, a man who was in a position of respect and power as a teacher (Kumu), a man who exploited that power to prey on his weakest subjects, and then lets him walk, and then even lets him go right back to the high profile, public endeavor which involves teaching children, and without even a mention regarding his participation as a child molestor in the Merrie Monarch,... IS A VERY SICK SOCIETY.

I ask if Judge Watanabe represents the people of his background based upon their general silence when this verdict went down. For people who talk about "shame" as though they own the concept, there was little "shame" for Judge Watanabe when he let a child molestor in the community walk.

We can find explanations, justifications, excuses for many of our human mistakes. Stealing to survive, even murder in a heat of passion. But child molestation is not one of those forgivable crimes. There is no excuse.

To suggest that we cannot "Judge" this kind of behavior is to say to those 4 boys, "sorry, get over it".

I've split posts from the Merrie Monarch 2006 festival discussion relating to Chinky Mahoe to this thread, specifically dedicated to him and the appropriateness of his continued involvement in the community. Carry on.

Kamuelakea:

Please read my post above (#18) and see that I, as one of Judge Watanabe's "people" did not choose to remain silent. Your outrage is warranted and even supported by many of us here; however, to tie one's ethnicity into the issue and then to file everyone else of the same ethnicity in the same drawer is not serving your purpose at all in participating in this discussion.

I don't believe anyone is beyond forgiveness, but I do believe, as I said above, that to allow a convicted child-molester to work with children, ever again, goes beyond reprehensible. If the people who run the Merrie Monarch feel differently, I suppose it's up to them, and if you want to remind everyone of what Mahoe did, that's up to you.

But if you want people to listen, you should probably stick to the issue, and leave the Christianity and Japanese stuff out; this was never about either of those.

sign me
A Japanese Christian

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But I'm disturbed! I'm depressed! I'm inadequate! I GOT IT ALL! (George Costanza)
GrouchyTeacher.com

I don't want people to listen to me. Only to make them think about themselves and their own prejudice and hypocrisy.

I am sure you are Japanese and a Christian offended by Chinky Mahoes non-sentance.

I am also sure that if I asked 1000 Japanese in Hawaii what they thought about a child molestor who pled guilty to molesting 4 kids in Hawaii being let off, at least 999 would be offended.

But I also bet you that if Chinky Mahoe had raped 4 Japanese girls from Aiea Intermediate, those 999 wouldn't just express disgust if asked, they would have been screaming for blood and Chinky Mahoe in that case would still be behind bars today if not dead.

4 Japanese girls raped by their teacher. Think about it. How would that go over in Hawaii. Really. What would be the community reaction, the media reaction, if a Hawaiian judge let the rapist off with probation.

Think about it some more.

If you are honest, you know very well that the outrage would have been a tsunami and the outcome very different. So ethnicity can matter in justice. Just look around.

How, exactly am I part of the problem? He's a great kumu hula, I find it disgusting what he did, and I too believe that he should have received some sort of punishment. Just because I don't share in your 'no mercy' attitude to this individual does not give you the right to assume that I'm part of the problem.

The courts allowed him to walk. Men and women of all ages continued to learn from him and wanted to learn from him because they know he's a good kumu, albeit one with issues. Your 'very sick society' is a 'very forgiving society' to many others.

Parents and students have a choice to have him as a kumu or not. It's as simple as that.

It's my hope that he's sought help for this because I believe that everyone has the right to better themselves rather than be ostracized by the whole community.

Not speaking out after the fact does not necessarily = being for or against. You fail to provide proof, so again, I must disagree with your above comment.

Just because I choose not to judge doesn't mean I expect others to do so as well. Please direct me in my initial post as to where I suggested that others should follow my lead.

Again, I like to look at things objectively from both sides and it's evident that you and I have different levels of forgiveness.

That is all.

I found this article on the Honolulu Star-Bulletin web site that was dated back in August 1998. Basically Chinky Mahoe got 5 years probation and some community service. Assuming he hasn't done anything to violate that probation and has done the community service he has paid the debt to society that he was told to pay.

I am a victim of Child Molestation. I was a mere four years old. No one believed. I still have scars. I am fifty years old. The victims will suffer the rest of their lives. Nuff said.

Auntie Lynn

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Be AKAMAI ~ KOKUA Hawai`i!
Philippians 4:13 --- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

So sorry for what happened to you, Auntie, but I no think nuff has been said yet regarding Chinky.

Since the hula community seems to have accepted him back into the fold, I think the least Chinky should have done, for the integrity of his halau and supporters and to show that he had any measure of being worthy of forgiveness, would've been for him to step down and assign an alaka'i to replace himself to be the new "face" and spokesperson for his halau with Chinky voluntarily forgoing any celebrity he might have had in the past as a token of humility and atonement, and especially as some kind of acknowledgement towards the atrocious crime that he committed.

Instead, there he is in all his glory — as if nothing happened.

Auntie, I'm also sorry for what happened to you. We had a similar situation in my family, and I saw firsthand how it can tear someone and a whole family apart.

While I don't quite agree with Chinky stepping down, I do feel that he should have made some public acknowledgement of what he did.

Despite him standing there with the awards though...it's been said that the worst form of punishment is guilt in knowing what you have done.

Dear Lurkah, I totally agree with you. I ment Nuff said on my part on what happened to me when I was molested. The truma, pain and deep scars lasts a lifetime. It is imbedded into the mind of a child. Although it may not seem to show - it can lay dormant. Years after the signs will show as the damage did in me.

I, too am outraged regarding Chinky Mahoe. I am outraged everytime another child is molested, raped and/or murdered by someone. I am "crazed" with anger when someone gets "away" with it especially by a Judicial System that supposed to be protecting the rights of our children who can not speak for themselves.

It has nothing to do with Ethnic, Religion, Gender, or what a person does. It is a violation of a worse kind. A violation of one's body. In this case, a violation of innocent bodies and knowingly a trust which was broken in the highest regard.

If we should be talking about Religion. Yes, Mr. Mahoe's final Judge shall be the Man himself. He shall be facing God face to face upon his death. At that time he shall be delt with the most highest of punishment of God.

God's worst punishment is for those who harm his children.

Auntie Alyn

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Be AKAMAI ~ KOKUA Hawai`i!
Philippians 4:13 --- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Sorry Helen, but when it comes to harming innocent children, then that 'debt to society' simply can never be paid in full.

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That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

By injecting racial/ethnic comments, you're going to lose support for what is otherwise your admirable position against Kinky Chinky. Just a word to the wise.

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That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

It seemed to me that the judges were able to separate the personal from the professional while judging. I found it interesting that when all of the kumu were introduced at the end and brought up to the stage, the camera featured each kumu approaching the stage for their 5 or 10 seconds of on camera 'glory'. I did not see that happen with Chinky and it appeared to me that the director was intentionally avoiding him by cutting to other cameras. Or, did I miss something?! It was late, afterall!

Lurkah...I completely agree with you. Chinky is obviously a wonderful kumu hula. That's not even an issue, as I see it. But, out of respect for the 4 boys and their families, I too think he should back off from publicly accepting any awards or adulation and give a new face and name to his halau. If his love of hula is pure he can continue to be involved in this dance for which he has so much talent but also allow it to go in a more socially acceptable direction that doesn't include his name, face or public adulation. For some people, unfortunately, the latter is of utmost importance. I don't know if Mahoe falls into that category.

Lei Liko...I completely respect your knowledge of hula and your opinions about Chinky. You seem to be wise beyond your years. While I don't completely agree with you about this situation I do not, in the least, feel you are "part of the problem".

I , too, have family members who were molested as children. Auntie Lynn is right...it scars for life, regardless of the amount or quality of therapy that's received. Therapy helps to manage one's emotions and pain. Therapy does NOT take those emotions and pain away. Every time a perpetrator's name is mentioned or his/her face is seen, the victims are retraumatized. I feel for those 4 families right now and hope they've stayed clear of all newspapers and tv for the past few days. For them to see this man rewarded (and it makes no difference whether or not it's deserved) has got to make them feel like victims all over again.